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Scottsdale pastor placed on leave after sex-abuse allegations

The allegations surfaced Saturday after multiple women told the Modesto Bee that Les Hughey — who founded Highlands Community Church in north Scottsdale — victimized them while he was working as a youth pastor.

In response to the report, Hughey issued a statement saying he had "sinned" during his time at First Baptist Church. But he said he had had only "consensual relations with fellow college-aged staff."

"Because the allegations are from more than 40 years ago, it will take some time to get a clear picture," Doug Milligan, a Highlands Community Church official, said in a statement Sunday. "We are concerned about the well-being of all people affected by these events."

Milligan said the church would "apply biblical standards and principles" and "show compassion to all involved" during its investigation.

'He was important'

The Arizona Republic on Sunday spoke to one of the women interviewed by the Modesto Bee. The Republic is not naming her because it generally does not identify possible victims of sexual assault.

The woman, now 59, said Hughey began sexually abusing her and others when she was a 17-year-old member of his youth group. Hughey was married and in his 20s at the time, she said.

The woman said the abuse continued through the time she was working as a 19-year-old employee of the church. Though Hughey described their encounters as consensual in his statement, the woman said Hughey used his position of power to manipulate her and others.

She said he would use dinner or baby-sitting as an excuse to get girls to come to his house and begin touching them after his wife went to bed.

A photo of Les Hughey on the Highlands Church website. The pastor is accused of sexually abusing four women while he worked as a youth pastor for a California church in the 1980s.(Photo: Highlands Church)

The woman said she confided in church leadership after another staff member found an explicit note Hughey had written to her. Officials told her to "bury the secret," she said.

Hughey was removed from the church in 1978, though church officials did not publicly cite a reason for his departure. The woman said no one from the church ever contacted her to check on her.

"Now, I understand what they meant by doing that," she said. "He was important, and we were not."

'It's impossible to undo'

After leaving First Baptist, Hughey was hired at Scottsdale Bible Church in the mid-1980s. He founded Highlands Community Church in the late 1990s.

On Wednesday, he issued a written statement in response to the Bee's report, saying he "sinned and harmed the most important relationships in my life" during his time in Modesto.

"I was unfaithful to my God, my wife, and the ministry, and was rightly removed from that church," he wrote. "…Unfortunately, it’s impossible to undo what happened, so I instead accept and live with the consequences, even now so many years later."

Hughey added that both his wife and church leaders were now aware of "his history."

Milligan, the church official, said in his statement that Hughey had addressed the allegations in remarks made during morning services Sunday.

"This matter was dealt with as church leadership thought best back then," Hughey told the congregation, according to the statement. "But we all failed to understand the deep wound that would come to everyone involved. I am profoundly sorry for all of the different people that I hurt."